After a dynamic first half of the year, investment in cybersecurity startups saw a decline in the third quarter. Globally, funding amounted to just over $3.3 billion for companies in seed to growth stages, marking a decrease of about one-third from the previous quarter but still surpassing figures from a year ago. Despite a drop in the number of deals, they remained higher than last year’s totals.
Significant funding rounds included Quantinuum, a quantum computing company with a $600 million Series B led by Nvidia, and Ontic, which secured $230 million in a Series C. Vanta followed with a $150 million Series D.
The quarter also witnessed notable exits, such as Netskope’s IPO, which raised over $900 million, and Mitsubishi Electric’s acquisition of Nozomi Networks for approximately $1 billion.
While the sequential decline in investment raises questions, the overall market remains stable. Public cybersecurity indexes are performing well, and the industry is closely watching the potential $32 billion acquisition of Wiz by Google, which could become the largest startup acquisition in the sector. The future of cybersecurity investment will depend on whether current trends continue or shift.
